The DePaul Blue Demons ended their 2024-25 season on an unexpected note. The team lost to the last seed in the Big East conference, the Xavier Musketeers, 73-80. DePaul was the sixth seed team in the tournament and had just won their last regular season game at home against the St. John’s Red Storm on March 2. On the other hand, Xavier came into this game with an 11-game losing streak; the last game they won was on Jan. 18 against Butler.
Before the game, Xavier only won once in the Big East tournament — that win was on March 7, 2015. Also, Xavier has only beaten DePaul once before in their all-time series against each other. The last time they beat DePaul was on Jan. 23, 1984.
Graduate guard Jorie Allen ends her final collegiate year as a Blue Demon — she finished the game with a double-double of 28 points and 12 rebounds. Allen subbed-out of her final game with two seconds left in the fourth quarter and hugged all the coaching staff and teammates on the bench.
Allen couldn’t think of what to say when asked about how she felt playing her last game with DePaul.
“I’m very hungry right now. Besides that, I don’t have a great answer for you,” Allen said reflecting on her final game in a DePaul uniform. “I think I got a lot of my emotions out last weekend at senior day. I hope that everyone knows that the best part of this whole experience for me was coming in everyday and seeing my people.”
As the only senior on the roster, Allen was the only one celebrated during the traditional senior day on March 2. She finished the season averaging 19.7 points per game and she started in all 31 games this season.
“The joy of the game is not always in the big moments, the joy of the game is practicing and I firmly believe that,” Allen said. “I love coming in everyday and getting to work and going through our routine and seeing the ball go through the hoop and imagining what it’s gonna look like on the floor in the game.”
Allen ends her career with 1,394 points, 701 rebounds and 291 assists.
DePaul went into halftime with a 14-point deficit — only scoring 19 in the first half. Then they tied the game at 62 with 5:04 left in the fourth quarter; they were not able to close it off after the Musketeers went on an 8-0 run, with 1:24 left on the clock.
“I just told my girls, it might be rough in the beginning but just stay together whether the storm, stick to the game plan,” Allen said on playing during March Madness.
As a final message to her “girls,” Allen hopes they “…find what makes them happy and pursue that on and off the court. If you come in, you work hard and you enjoy the people around you, everything’s gonna work out for you.”
Allen added: “You don’t have to conform to any particular position or path, it can be exactly what you want it to be, I think I’m a great example of that. I mean, I made one (3-pointer) this season but I still was a scorer — I can shoot threes, I just don’t.”
Aizhanique Mayo, a redshirt sophomore at Xavier, hit six 3-pointers. Mayo and Meri Kanerva, a freshman from Finland, finished with a combined 55 points.
“It’s March basketball, if you wanna survive and advance, as they say, you gotta execute the game plan, you gotta make big shots and people have to step up,” interim head coach Jill Pizzotti said. “We ended up on the short end today and, you know, it’s great to see us battle back.”
DePaul finished their season with a 13-19 overall record. Pizzotti stepped in for the 2024-25 season after head coach Doug Bruno had a medical incident in September. While the team and coaches had high expectations for the Big East tournament, it did not turn out as they had hoped.
“I had visions of us really coming in here and playing great,” Pizzotti said. “I thought our players did a great job this year, just hanging in there and staying with it and dealing with the adversity. I wanted them to be rewarded by coming in and having a great weekend. I wanted this to be their moment, but you gotta work and make it your moment; we didn’t get that done.”
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